OEMs turn to Windows after tablet market contracts again

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The tablet market turned out to be a failed experiment as it contracted once again, this time by 3.4 million units or 8.5% in the first quarter of 2017.

The tablet market in statistics

It is not all about Apple’s loss as the market leader with 24.6% market share experienced sluggish sales down by 1.4 million units compared to the first quarter of 2016. Two million units are currently left unaccounted for.

Android tablets now carry most of the decline as the IDC reports that detachable tablets (most of them being Windows-based) are continuing to grow, even in a moment when the tablet market itself is declining.

As far as most are aware, the tablet market was created in 2010 with the launch of the original iPad, despite unsuccessful product attempts by other OEMs in the years leading up to this,”

The rate at which the tablet market grew from 2010 to 2013 was unlike many other consumer-oriented device markets we’ve seen before. However, it appears for many reasons consumers became less eager to refresh these devices, or in some instances purchase them at all. We continue to believe the leading driver for this was the increased dependency on smartphones, along with rather minimal technology and form factor progression.

PC products move to detachables

Windows tablets are free from the limitations the iPad and Android tablets have, and OEMs are increasingly turning to Windows to run their detachable devices.

According to IDC, both Samsung and Huawei launched Windows detachables and Lenovo moved more of its PC products to detachables.

A long-term threat to the overall PC market lies in how the market ultimately settles on the detachable versus convertible debate,” reported Linn Huang, research director, Devices & Displays at IDC. “To date, detachable shipments have dwarfed those of convertibles, but the growth of the former has slowed a bit. In IDC’s 2017 U.S. Consumer PCD Survey, fielded over the previous two months, detachable owners held slightly more favourable attitudes towards their detachables than convertible owners did for their convertibles. However, owners of both were far more likely to recommend a convertible over a detachable.

Most of the latest trends seem to favor PCs and the productivity benefits for Windows. We hope that this will lead to enhanced support for the Windows OS.